Managerial decision-making : subordinate-managers' participation in management decisions in the Saudi security educational institutes and centres

Managerial decision making is an essential element of management. The complexity of the post industrial society, the growth of education, the speed of technological change, and the twentieth century informational revolution are important factors which increase efforts for participatory decisions. Today's subordinates are more educated, highly skilled, and more experienced than ever before. They cannot be managed by the old authoritarian decision making styles. However, the participative process of making a decision can help to increase subordinates' satisfaction, provide recognition and responsibility and reduce any conflict and ambiguity experienced by the work group.;The approach used in this study is mainly exploratory and descriptive in nature and takes, as a starting point, a number of questions and hypotheses on the current managerial situation of the Saudi security educational institutes and centres. The methodology consists of the use of a survey questionnaire to obtain empirical data from the subject managers. This is to identify their managerial decision-making styles, the degree of participation that might exist in the decision making process and attitudes towards the concept of participation and its techniques. The data were analysed through the use of descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found that the five decision-making styles (AI, AII, CI, CII and GII) were all utilised by the respondents. The semi-autocratic style (AII) was predominantly employed by the respondents. The non-programmed decisions were most often made by the joint decision-making style (GII). The programmed decisions were most often done by the semi-autocratic style (AII).